About Sam Francis

Radiating a sense of barely contained energy, vivacity, and joy, Sam Francis's distinctive work uses bold primary colors and jewel-like tones, abstract forms splattered, dripped, and drizzled across the surface of the canvas. The dynamic confident style of Francis has often been likened to that of Jackson Pollock, yet the visual language of this great artist is far more complex than that.
Sam Francis absorbed influences from the many… Read more

About the artwork

The bright joyful lithographs of Sam Francis vibrate with light and color, the energetic drippings of his canvases perfectly rendered in printerly form. The abstract shapes that dominate these works seem to pulsate with a life of their own, filled with a sense of movement and motion. The earlier lithographs from the 1960s in particular reveal Francis' preoccupation with Zen Buddhist notions of the void, where flowing planes of color frame the empty center of the page.